tearmoon empire

By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Madeleine Willette.

Generally speaking, unless God is literally involved in the plot, the “how and why” of these time loop stories is rarely examined. We know why – so they can redo their life and get it right this time. And for a lot of Tearmoon Empire, that’s been the case. Even with vanishing diaries and conflicting timelines, the premise has been “Mia fixes things so she’s not executed”. But with Bel and Patty, things aren’t quite so clear cut. We can guess that Patty might have been sent back to screw up Mia’s timeline fixes, but if so that’s going pretty badly. As for Bel… is it really just to help her mature and keep Citrina happy? Or is there some deeper purpose to her presence? Is there a guiding hand in this that is not Saint Mia and her sarcastic narrator? Unfortunately, this is Bel’s problem to solve, as Mia has a whole host of new things to deal with. Which, mostly, she handles very well.

This is a “set up the next arc” volume, so there’s a bit less drama and a lot more talking. What drama there is comes from Patty, who is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and Mia realizes that she may have left it a bit too long before she needs to tell her the truth. We also get more details about Patty’s brother, who was supposedly very ill, and also supposedly assassinated by Citrina’s family… though we discover most of those “assassinations” were “ship them overseas on a boat” instead. Once Mia returns to home base, she must deal with her clingiest friends being out of sorts about not spending time with her, and also has to win over a new princess in order to further her own plans. Unfortunately, this princess is following daddy’s orders, and while she’s savvy she’s not really that clever… except when it comes to fish.

After last volume reminded us that Sapphias exists, this volume does the same for Esmeralda, who has mostly been absent from the story since the shipwreck arc. She’s very aware of that, in fact, and has been hearing about Mia having all of these adventures – some of them dangerous, but that doesn’t matter – without her. As for Esmeralda herself… look, with Mia, we have her genuine character growth constantly undercut by the narrator, so we have to pick it out in between the snark. The narrator, however, mostly shuts up when Mia or her immediate offspring aren’t involved, though, and it allows us to see that Esmeralda has changed as much as Mia.This also means that she not only spots regrets in others – such as one of Mia’s ex-maids who is now at the Mia academy – but also in herself, as she finally gives Arshia a richly deserved apology… which, to Arshia’s credit, she doesn’t accept. More needs to be done before the bridges can be repaired. It’s also a good example of the timeline changing as we read. as the start of her arc in this book has Esmeralda an obscure, mostly forgotten figure who worked behind the scenes, while at the end she’s a famous diplomat.

I was annoyed that the fat jokes seem to have returned here, but other than that this was an excellent volume, showing Mia actually thinking things through and making clever decisions, though it’s her empathy, as always, that wins the day.

By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Madeleine Willette.

One thing I appreciate about Tearmoon Empire is that, unlike a lot of other current light novel series, it’s not really trying to be a mystery – or at least, not a mystery where the reader is supposed to figure things out. All of the things that are going to be happening a hundred pages from now are helpfully signposted before we get there, and even when Mia doesn’t really figure something out someone else does (Rina has been a godsend for this series, as she’s allowed to be the bitter cynic Mia can’t be). And, most importantly, the answer to every “how on earth could this happen” is always the same answer: it’s those Chaos Serpents again. Indeed, this time we get a woman who’s been a Chaos Serpent for a very long time as the main villain of this volume, and she’s not only out to destroy Mia’s alliance but she has a grudge against Mia personally… as well as the girl who looks a LOT like Mia’s grandmother.

We pick up with the plot we started in the last book, as Mia has created a horsemanship tournament to try to help Ruby get our of her arranged marriage… and possibly to get Vanos some glory so that Ruby’s crush is more likely to actually appeal to her father. Naturally things don’t quite go the way Mia planned… but honestly, they mostly do, and while Ruby still can’t quite work up the nerve to confess, for the most part it’s a happy ending. Unfortunately, there’s no happy ending in Tearmoon Empire that can’t be erased by the next arc, as Bel comes by with shocking news… Ludwig’s future diary says that Mia is going to be betrayed by… Sapphias! This is baffling, as any reader who remembers Sapphias… which may not be many, to be fair… will recall he’s firmly in Mia’s corner. What’s going on here?

Much as I’ve talked about Mia’s character growth in the books as we’ve moved along, I do appreciate that she can sometimes be caught absolutely flat-footed, as she is here with the identity of the latest Chaos Serpent traitor. It’s pure coincidence that Mia’s love of weird mushrooms just happened to vibe with Citrina’s “oh, those are basically used for confessions” knowledge to save the day. Mia’s real skills, which she’s always had but have been honed over these books, are improvisation – the narrative calls it “riding the wave”, but that’s a talent a lot of people just don’t have – and her increased empathy, as honed by the guillotine. Mia may have been ignorant of the Serpent plot here, but her goals for the cooking party – get closer to Sapphias’ fiancee, then try to work things out without accusations or violence – shows she may actually be a very good politician as an adult almost despite herself. It’s no longer “her selfish cowardice was misunderstood by everyone”.

I enjoyed this volume so much I will forgive the one or two mild fat jokes I spotted near the start. Hopefully next time Mia can finally solve the problem of her grandmother, who is desperately sad but can’t show it because of abusive indoctrination. That said, Tearmoon is (mostly) lighthearted, so hopefully the solution won’t be as bad as the end of Book 11.

By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Madeleine Willette.

I really enjoy the fact that, even though there are many characters who are introduced into this series to be goofy and comedic, no one is allowed to stay only goofy and comedic. Mia is obviously the biggest example, but we’ve seen a few others pop up. Here we notice that Bel has not only returned from the future slightly older, but she’s also slightly wiser, and while her grades may still struggle, she knows the value of studying and can start to think cleverly on her own. It’s fantastic to see, because “Bel is dumb” was getting as old as “Mia is getting fat”, another punchline we don’t see here. Even the narrative is getting in on being clever. I love the discussion of how Bel’s time-travel (and Mia’s) not only is affecting the present/causing alternate futures, but it’s also reverberating into the PAST, changing the past before it can become that present. Which might make fixing the Patricia problem easier… but also possibly harder, if Mia keeps accidentally acting like a comedy villainess.

The book starts off with the end of the last arc. Julius has been revealed as the villain, and it also turns out he’s Barbara’s son. This comes as a big surprise to Barbara, thanks to the efforts of the Chaos serpents. Still, everything ends up sort of okay, and while some people are punished, and even imprisoned, no one has to be executed. After this it’s summer break, and Mia returns to Tearmoon, with a rather large entourage – not only is Abel coming along, but so are Yanna and Kiryl, the orphans who would rather not go back to their orphanage, and also Aima, who is happy to be checking out the horses of other countries. Unfortunately, new problems abound. Ruby comes to Mia sobbing as she’s being engaged to a noble… and in a world where no one really objects to political marriages, that’s hard to fix. Worse, the Chaos Serpents are still around and still trying to kill Mia.

Just because we’re getting rid of some running gags doesn’t mean they’re all gone. Near the start of the book we get another hilarious sequence where everyone decides to make sandwiches and Keithwood tries desperately to stop them accidentally poisoning everyone (though he also finds a potential future partner, because Tearmoon Empire enjoys pairing off everyone almost as much as How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom does). I also really enjoyed this book leaning into how horse riding has now become equal to dancing in being something Mia is really good at. When she took that huge jump I cheered along with everyone else. If there’s one down side to this series, it’s that the author and publisher can’t figure out a way to have each arc end at the end of a book. This is another book that’s one third the climax of the last arc, and 2/3 the start of the next one, and since the climax is mostly explanations, it means we don’t get much oomph here. Oomph will have to wait for Book 14.

Which isn’t scheduled here yet, but I assume it will be along before too long. I really appreciate how this series has matured along with its heroine.

By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Madeleine Willette.

The cliffhanger ending to the last volume already told us that Bel had returned “from the dead”, so it’s not a surprise to see her on the cover, though it is a bit of a surprise to see her looking older. Mia is also stated to have grown, and for once the narrator, usually snarky, has to assure us that it’s height this time rather than the usual fat jokes. We are told that Mia is now sixteen, which is nice to hear, but also ominous, as it was when Mia turned eighteen that she was captured by the revolution in her first timeline. And it’s probably because we’ve come so far, and are theoretically closer to the end of this series, that Mia is allowing one big secret to come out. Not her own, of course – heaven forbid – although we see some signs in the future that Ludwig may figure it out. But with so many people having seen Bel shot in the neck with an arrow and killed, there’s no other way to explain her return than time travel.

Of course, Mia has bigger problems than just Bel’s resurrection and presence back in the past. Another young girl showed up behind Bel… and Bel has no idea who she is. So presumably not from the “good future”. What’s more, the girl’s name is Patricia… the same as Mia’s grandmother… and she claims to be from a family that Mia can’t quite remember but isn’t around anymore. (It’s hinted she’s suppressing the memory as what happened to the family terrified her.) Mia, who is more on the ball in this book than any other book, is 90% sure that this is her grandmother, somehow sent into the future, the opposite of Bel, but that’s even more terrifying, as it becomes clear that Patricia has been indoctrinated by the Chaos Serpents!

I think the most interesting part of this book is that we see Mia eating a giant pile of sweets throughout, but the narrator rarely chimes in to mention her weight. This is because the sweets help Mia to think and not get distracted, and Mia needs to do a giant pile of thinking in this book. Mia is sixteen, as mentioned earlier, and while still tending towards doing the right thing for the wrong reason, she has learned to not only trust her instincts but anticipate them. She knows she cannot just ignore the Patricia problem and hope it will go away, as (let’s be honest) she did with Bel. And there’s plenty of what we read Tearmoon for, as Mia accidentally comes up with kingdom-altering ideas that will reverberate for decades to come… only it’s getting less accidental. Mia still frames it as being selfish, but she’s not only getting the best results here, she’s getting it because of her words and actions. Her final speech is a fantastic example. It was a terrific lesson. I really love her.

That said, whoops, another nasty cliffhanger. Luckily, Book 13 should be out in late August. Can Mia rescue her own past as well as her own future? And can we still quietly ignore some of the May-December romances in this series? (Looking at you, Citrina.)

y Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Madeleine Willette.

(This review gets a bit spoilery about the fate of one of the main characters, be warned. Though I try to glide over it.)

We’ve seen Tearmoon Empire be a fun comedy, and we’ve seen it be an action thriller, and we’ve seen it be a romance as well. But we really have not seen it as a dark tragedy. Or rather, it’s only been seen in flashbacks to the bad future, where we see the consequences of Mia being unable to save everyone and getting executed. And that’s tended to be more along the lines of “my God, what have I done?” The latter half of this book, though, goes as closely as this series is likely to get into the tragedy mode, and I’m kicking myself that I did not pick up on the ominous foreshadowing in the last volume, which I cheerfully thought was “oh boy, secrets are going to be told once this arc gets finished!”. Unfortunately, this leads to the question of “why won’t secrets actually be told?”, and the answer is possibly “because the person with the secrets is now dead.”

We pick up where the last book left off, with the race between Mia, on her “slow but steady wins the race” horse, and Xiaolei, on her “fastest in the land” horse. If you’re suspecting we’re seeing a retelling of the Tortoise and the Hare fable, you’re pretty much dead on. Mia is, of course, trying her best NOT to win, for various reasons, but we already know how that’s going to go. She does, however, manage to unite the tribes. Which is good, as unfortunately while this was going on Citrina was kidnapped by the Chaos Serpents, led by Abel’s older sister Valentina. Mia goes to rescue her, and oddly she is allowed to take other people with her, such as Abel and Dion. Why, it’s almost like the Serpents’ goal is not merely to kill off Mia but something far more sinister…

This is the second book I’ve read recently that felt like a final volume of the series, enough so that the author needs to assure us it’s not the end. The cliffhanger ending helps, as we’re introduced to what appears to be yet another Tearmoon from the future (?). As for the book itself, Mia is pretty great in it (I always enjoy a good “I won’t let the villains die, that would be too easy on them, they will have to live on” plot), but honestly the emotional lifting is done by Citrina and Bel. I joked on Twitter that since Mia had changed the future so that she doesn’t suffer, Citrina had become Tearmoon Empire’s designated woobie, and it’s not wrong. The other reason that this feels like a final volume is that we get a ton of flashforwards to “the good future”, the one Mia will eventually get to, with everyone alive and married off. It’s nice to actually *see* Grandma Mia rather than just hear about her. As for Citrina… well, I suspect the start of Book 12 will help. At least, I hope so.

I haven’t even mentioned the other high point of the volume, where Valentina tells us what the Chaos Serpents actually are. This was one of the best in the series. And again, the arc ended at the end of the book! Keep it up!

By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Madeleine Willette.

This volume starts off with something we have rarely seen in this series: the actual beginning of a new story arc. For some reason or another, the author and publisher of this title are very bad at making climaxes in this series happen at the end of the volume itself, so we have the next book start with the climax instead or an epilogue chapter rather than the next arc. But here, at last, we start off with something new: Mia, Rafina, and company headed off to Equestria, there to meet up with the chiefs who make up that nomadic people. Or at least, they are until Mia and Rafina, our for a ride, are beset by bandits. The head of the bandits turns out to be the daughter of one of the tribe leader, and there’s a good reason that her people are reduced to this: a poor harvest means they’re hard up for food. Something that Mia understands all too well…

I’ve been complaining about the narrator for a while now, so it’s time I turned around and mentioned the points where I do appreciate it. The manga doesn’t really use a narrator, making Mia far more sympathetic, but the new anime adaptation (which so far is excellent) is definitely playing it up. It was a highlight of the early books, but grew a bit wearying as we began to see Mia genuinely growing as a person. Where it works best in this book is when it’s looking at everyone else’s thoughts – seeing Ludwig or Rafina staring at Mia talking about what is inevitably food, and thinking that this is the point when they realize that she’s not a great sage but a massive faker… and then they leap to a different conclusion to support their own love for Mia, and the narrator is disappointed once more. This is funny as hell.

Bel, as always, gets little to to in this volume, but for a change what she does get is fantastic. We haven’t paid quite as much attention to her past… which is to say, the Bad Future #3… in a while, but that does not mean that she isn’t constantly dwelling on it, especially given that her entire existence is something of a secret. But now she’s best friends with Citrina, and may finally be able to reach out and make promises without getting her hopes dashed by everyone promising to come back and then dying on her. (There is some mild subtext between her and Citrina, which I’m content to ignore, partly as they’re both 10 and partly as I’m sure it’s unintentional, but…) She also says she’s going to tell Citrina about her secrets when they get back to the Empire, which should be very interesting if it happens, and might be the start of a new arc.

But first we have to end this arc, which of course does not neatly wrap up here. Is Abel’s sister irredeemably evil? Can Mia possibly win a horse race riding a horse the narrator repeatedly compares to Mia herself? And did we just see the start of a Rafina x Malong ship? The next book is… for once, not that far away! Also, go watch the anime.

By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Teng.

I’m not sure how long Tearmoon Empire is supposed to be, or even if the author has an ending in mind. Certainly Vol. 12 is due out in Japan soon, so we’re not anywhere close to the end at the moment. And yet it feels that we have at least started to hit the back half of the series, if only because we’re getting flash forwards that aren’t always depressing nightmares. The last couple of volumes of Tearmoon Empire have shown us glimpses of the main cast in the original world after Mia is executed, and this volume has one as well. It’s meant to show us all the good that Mia has done her second time around, even when she doesn’t always realize it. But here we also start to see flashforwards that seem to be the ACTUAL happy future, showing us an older Mia still happily running rings around everyone even if the narrator insists that she’s being a selfish coward. I really enjoyed reading them.

We pick up right where we left off at the end of the previous book, with Mia and company trying to stop Prince Sion from being poisoned by his younger brother. They succeed at this… accidentally, but the actual poisoning that happens is much worse, and requires everyone (but particularly Tiona and Citrina) being incredibly quick-witted. After the fallout from this, there’s still a massive party with nobles to attend to, so Sion and Abel decide to fight for Mia’s hand once and for all in a sword duel. Which comes as a big surprise to Mia, who as usual in matters of the heart seems to act like a girl her age. That said, when Sion actually confesses to her, she knows that this isn’t something she can actually brush off or deflect, and gives him an honest, sincere answer. Even the narrator is (mostly) silent here.

Tiona spent most of the start of this series either absent or barely appearing, which was a surprise given the role that she had in Mia’s original timeline. But gradually she’s grown in importance as a character, and here we see what Mia’s actions have wrought, which is that she and Sion have now had enough character development that they can genuinely confide in each other. While Tearmoon Empire isn’t quite a “villainess” book per se, and is not derived from an otome game, Tiona absolutely fulfills the “heroine of an otome game” archetype, including being able to see past noble bullshit and get to the heart of the matter. As for Mia, she’s getting smarter by the book. I especially loved when Citrina praised her for her foresight in finding the antidote mushroom, and Mia briefly debated taking credit for it, but decided to tell Citrina that it really was just pure coincidence. I’m hoping that in future books we can see her be even more honest with others about her real motives, though the basic premise of the book tells me I won’t see it too often.

This was an absolute banger of a book, wrapping up this arc in fine fashion, and with several real dramatic moments. Next time we’ll be going to The Valley of Horses, but hopefully not in a Jean M. Auel way, and presumably we will slowly set up the next arc but not pay it off. These books are long, as are the arcs.

By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Teng.

Tearmoon Empire is a very funny series. There are tons of scenes of Mia being silly or smug, other people misunderstanding her to comic effect, etc. But the series also knows when it’s time to be 100% serious, and that time is whenever get get a glimpse of what life was like in the original timelines. We’ve already seen how things progressed in Bel’s world (and see why Dion is her absolute hero, something that baffles both the Dion of this world as well as Citrina), but we’ve also seen the main cast occasionally have dreams of their prior lives. They’re never good dreams. It’s Tiona’s turn here, and it hits especially hard given that Mia was thinking that she hopes the Tiona and Sion of her past life, the “perfect couple”, lived happily ever after. Instead, in both Tiona and Sion’s case, we see that the need for vengeance, justice and revolution ended up driving them away from each other, and nobody ends up happy. Everyone should be relieved Mia went back in time.

Because no Tearmoon Empire volume can ever QUITE get the arcs to line up properly, we start with the end of the previous arc, as Mia fosters better relations between the Empire and its domain by doing the one thing that even the narrator admits she’s fantastic at: dancing. Feeling good about things, but reminded of her previous complacency, she decides to read her Bloody Diary. It’s a good thing she checked – now it says that Sion is assassinated in a month’s time. Coincidentally (or is it?), Esmeralda comes to Mia in a panic, as her father has said she'[s to be married off to a Sunkland noble. Realizing that she can go to Sunkland and stop Sion getting killed if she tags along with Esmeralda’s engagement party, Mia and her entourage visit Sion’s country for the first time. And, as it turns out, getting assassinated by bandits may be the least of Sion’s worries…

We do sometimes get the device of seeing Mia’s POV of a scene and then seeing the same scene again with another character, though not nearly to the extent of, say, My Next Life As a Villainess. And sometimes we don’t even need to get the other half of the scene because we can infer the heartwarming in our heads. Now that Citrina is no longer an enemy, she’s ready to do anything she can to help Mia – including, she assumes, what she’s be best at – killing people. But Mia assures her that she will never ask her to kill someone else for her, something that poleaxes Citrina. Yes, it’s framed around Mia wanting delicious mushrooms (as is most of the book, really) but the sentiment is also genuine. Mia wants as few people killed as possible, even if that might affect her end goal. It inspires Citrina, who is really crafty for such a young girl, to try to help Mia in slightly less permanent ways. Her growth was my favorite part of this book.

This volume spent most of its time setting up a stack of dominoes, but unfortunately we have to wait for the 9th volume to knock them over. Till then, this remains one of my absolute favorite light novel series.

By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Teng.

The narrative voice is one of the most well-known parts of this series, but we do occasionally see inside Mia’s own thoughts as well, and when we do we can sort of get what the narrator is talking about. There are several points in this book where Mia is essentially being a petty, selfish and gluttonous princess – we see how she thinks. In those cases, yes, the fact that everyone misinterprets her can be ridiculous. That said, we also see many times in this volume Mia’s sharp instincts to avoid the guillotine, and those are top-tier. When Mia doesn’t think but simply reacts, be it to a death flag or when she sees one of her friends is unhappy, she shines. And heck, even her selfish pettiness doesn’t last long – her desire to see a money-grubbing merchant suffer is thrown out the window when she sees him legitimately suffering the aftereffects of a heart attack. In this book we really do see that if she does become Empress, she might just do OK.

The first fifth of the book wraps up the third “arc” we’ve been reading, with Mia returning home for the weeklong festival to celebrate her birthday, as we are reminded that her father is, not to put too fine a point on it, a freak. That said, it’s the colors Mia wears to her party that make the impression. After this we move into a new arc which features Mia, having set up an excellent program to combat famine, trying hard to keep it from collapsing. Chaos Serpents are still trying to sow discord, but we also have to deal with those who realize that a famine can be a great way to make a pile of cash if you’re the one delivering the food. Now Mia and Ludwig have to face off against an antagonist who Mia remembers from her past life… when things ended in disaster. Can she turn things around with the help of a commoner studying medicine and the power of wheat?

This is usually the point of every review where I get annoyed at the narrator for harping on Mia being chubby, and yeah, it’s here as well. That said, we also see Mia chiding herself for a different kind of flab. A couple of times in this book she makes the mistake of being complacent, and that’s when disaster pricks at her intuition. Given that there is a secret society whose goal is to destroy her and her kingdom, Mia simply can’t stop and just relax. I think, in time, this will become second nature to her – she just needs to have her thoughts map to her instincts more. She also has help. Ludwig is hilarious here, taking on the brunt of “misunderstand Mia in a positive way” and realizing that if you truly want to change everything about the Empire, might as well also let people like him be Chancellor. As for Shalloak, the “evil” merchant, his story actually ends up being heartwarming and tragic at the same time – the benefits of people dreaming of their past lives in another world.

Add to this one of the best side stories in the entire series, where a search for cake will make you cry, and you have a fantastic volume. Each one of these is a treasure.

By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Teng.

It can be hard to let go of a gimmick, especially when the gimmick in question is the main reason you got readers in the first place. One reason everyone loved Tearmoon Empire 1 was not only the dissonance between Mia’s own thoughts and actions and what everyone ELSE thought of these, but also the snarky narrator constantly pummeling her. I’d theorized before that the narrator was hired by future Mia to try to slow the publishing of hagiographies about her. That being said… Mia has grown and matured a little bit, and I feel now that the goofy “she only thinks about herself and food” shtick is holding her back. And the narrator, especially when he’s making fat jokes, is starting to grate. Most importantly, though, I’m starting to feel like all the other cast members Mia has misled: if you ignore Mia’s intentions and the narrator, this remains a fantastic read, filled with intrigue, action, character building, and plot twists. Mia being a dumbass and the narrator pointing it out all the time isn’t needed anymore.

Mia is in the background for this cover picture, which is a good thing, as it shows us that Bel is, finally, going to get some actual attention. Much of the book is about Mia trying to avoid her own assassination in various ways, though honestly she mostly just avoids thinking about it, as she doesn’t want to get anyone else in danger. So we get things like a massive mushroom hunting party in the nearby forest (where she accidentally discovers deadly poison mushrooms that were what killed off a large number of people in the prior timeline) and preparing for the Holy Eve Festival, which we do not get to see because, of course, Bel is kidnapped in order to force Mia to leave the island and then kill her. There’s only one thing Mia can do… exactly what they say, hoping that if she managed to rewind time once she’ll be able to do it once she’s killed again.

Not to spoil or anything, but Mia is not killed off again, this is not that kind of time loop book. And I’ve complained about the parts of the book I didn’t like above, so let me talk about what I did like. Sometimes Mia’s thought processes are wonderful, such as when she discovers Bel is kidnapped and tries to think of the many very good reasons that going after her is a mistake… all the while getting dressed up and preparing to leave, because unconsciously she knows she’ll never abandon her granddaughter. Bel is basically a shoujo protagonist here, winning over the villains by the power of being sweet and kind, and it’s adorable. The villain is obvious and hammy, but hey. There’s also some good worldbuilding here, showing us the underside of the Yellowmoons and also a few flashbacks to the previous world, where everything went terribly. And the chase and fight scenes were wonderful, and also introduce a new minor villain who I hope we’ll see again, along with his huge puppies… OK, wolves.

So yeah, I don’t expect Tearmoon Empire to drop Mia being thought of as smart when she’s really thinking about cookies, or the narrator pointing out how her altruism is bullshit, but I’d like more of the growth we saw in Book 4-5. Also, I have no idea why the narrator is insulting her “mushroom outfit”. She looks stylish! That’s clearly a raffish cap!

By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Teng.

The structure of this book is slightly off, as the author admits that the story got away from them and the island arc that should have concluded the 2nd “arc” of this story ended up being the first third of this 5th book as well. Still, it works out, as we get to see Mia turn a corner and fend off another of her fates written in a long history book… or at least it was long. Yes, sometimes when you’re trying to stop the bad guys who can mess with the fates, you end up finding that your fate can sometimes get even worse. Now Mia’s not being executed at the guillotine or cut down in her adult years for not being Empress, the history books say she’ll be killed in a few scant months. Can she avoid this fate while continuing to work hard to save her kingdom from famine, win over more allies by being kind and charming, and also eat delicious sweets? The answer should be obvious.

The one thing I took away from this book is that I think Mia handles plots against her, or large conspiracies, much better than sudden random events conspiring against her. When she has to deal with a cave-in, a seemingly deadly fish attacking her, or even just horses sneezing in her face, she seems to always end up on the wrong foot. But the larger, more epic scenarios are where she shines – and yes, by now even the narrator is having trouble saying EVERYTHING she does is due to her selfishness and need to eat sweets, although god knows they try to say so anyway. In her confrontation with Esmeralda, where she sees the traitorous past of their nation as found in a secret underground ruin, stares destiny right in the face, and says “to hell with that”, she really is learning to be a good person – and yes, it’s framed as her having to “deceive” Esmeralda by saying they’re best friends, but I don’t doubt it’s actually going to come to pass. Mia is no longer as passive or luck-driven as she was in past books.

The 2nd half of the book, back at school, is even better. Finding from Bel’s now-changed history book how she’s going to die, she takes steps to avoid it, the first of which is getting even better at riding horses. The way she does this is actually quite clever. You see, she gets up early, practices really hard, learns to read the movements of the horse, and treats them well, even going so far as to help save the life of the pregnant horse that she had been eyeing up as a replacement mount (as opposed to the horse that keeps sneezing on her). See? I told you it was clever. Mia is doing things correctly and doing them well. This culminates in the highlight of the book, where she races Ruby, the daughter of the House of Redmoon, in a Belmont Stakes with one of her retainers at stake. The race is fantastic, with Mia being both very much in character (she’s screaming and whining the entire time) but also incredibly awesome. And we also see her changing history once more, as one reason she was executed her first go-round is that she pissed off Ruby so much she persuaded her father not to support them with military might… something that ended up being fatal to them both. This time around, everyone wins, and Mia’s solution to what to do about Ruby is brilliant. I don’t even care if she wasn’t thinking long-term here. It’s still brilliant.

There are, of course, a few plotholes with the new arc, but they’re acceptable. Miabel did not vanish when Mia’s fate changed, despite the fact that she did not live long enough to have kids, much less grandkids. Even the author acknowledges this is a handwave, but it’s fine, as we also get sweet scenes of Miabel managing to stay her innocent, sweet self even in a bad future where she has to be hidden from the world. That said, Mia is still the star, not her granddaughter, and Mia is the reason that these books keep getting better. I can’t wait for the next one, and I would say that this is essential light novel reading.

By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Teng.

We’ve now had three books filled with Princess Mia doing something for either selfish or silly reasons (or, increasingly, because she is a very nice person) that ends up misinterpreted by everyone around her as pure brilliance, and we get plenty of that here as well. But we’re starting to also see the rest of the cast accomplish things away from Mia and have their own subplots. No, alas, I don’t mean Miabel, who’s still pretty much the mascot character of the series, and gets left behind for the second half of the book while the rest of the cast have a cruise. Instead, it’s Ludwig, thinking of some offhand remarks of Mia’s as well as what he thinks she would be doing in his place, that leads him to uncover a web of political intrigue that could end up crippling the Empire if things do end up happening the way that Mia predicts they will. His investigation and detective work is a refreshingly sedate part of this book. That said, rest assured there’s still a lot of Mia vs. reality here to love.

As with a couple of other Tearmoon books, the main plot is divided into two large chunks. The first picks up where the previous book left off: the school Mia had planned to start up is floundering, as ,most of the teachers and the headmaster have left. The answer is sadly obvious: Mia may be a very atypical noble now, but most nobles are far more like what Mia was in her previous “life”, and they are not having which this school where horrible farmers will be taught. To solve this, Ludwig suggests bringing in his former mentor, an eccentric old man whose grumpy tendencies and dislike of most nobles play right into Mia’s hands. After this, she is invited on a sea cruise to a tropical island by fellow noble Esmeralda, who IS like most nobles are – you will expect her maid to stab her in the face before the book finishes. Accompanied by Sion, Abel and Keithwood, all of whom supposedly go to “guard” Mia, they sadly run into a typhoon, leaving them stranded on an island that no longer looks as fun.

To get a big negative out of the way first, there is a subplot here about Mia getting a swimsuit for the cruise and realizing that she has tummy bulge, which unfortunately leads to a bunch of fat jokes, though Mia does end up losing most of the weight before the cruise itself. It’s not welcome. The rest of the book is filled with Tearmoon shenanigans, as most of the cast are content to listen to what she says and then make the most amazingly wrong conclusion imaginable, usually to the benefit of everyone involved. The semi-exception here is Keithwood, who knows Mia can be a flake, and is irritated with her mushroom obsession (especially as most of them are poisonous), but still regards her as a force for good. Which, honestly, she is. The narrative may frame Mia’s actions much of the time as self-interest or cowardice, but more and more we’re seeing Mia just be really nice to everyone – and get irritated when other nobles are not, as her anger towards Esmeralda’s treatment of her servant shows. Mia may be no Great Sage, but if things continue to go like this, she may make a very good leader.

The books are getting quite popular in Japan – the author talks about a stage play being made, and a 2nd one is due out this year – and it’s not hard to see why. Mia is fun, the books are exciting, there’s some good politics, and each book is long enough that you get a lot of bang for your buck. Hopefully fewer fat jokes next time, but otherwise still essential.

By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Teng.

When we last left Mia, it appeared that she had managed to avoid her dreadful fate – indeed, the author says what we all guessed in the afterword of this book – it was supposed to be two volumes originally. But the series grew to be quite popular (there’s even a live-action stage musical coming out in Japan), and so Mia’s story lives on! Because Mia may have avoided the guillotine as a young bratty princess, but that doesn’t mean she can’t later be killed off as an adult! And so we now get Mia’s granddaughter Bel, who has traveled back in time to avoid her own horrific fate, because 50 years on or so, the whole of Tearmoon Empire has gone to hell again. There’s only one way to fix this and keep Mia from a horrible fate… she has to defeat the Saint, Rafina, and become Student Council President!… wait, what?

Most of the book has what made the first two books so much fun. Mia trying to act selfishly and failing; Mia’s actions being completely misinterpreted by everyone around her. The snarky narrator is there but does not seem quite as mean or nasty to Mia this time around. That said, Mia is not magically a good and noble-hearted person; she’s still growing up and trying to mature, and it’s a slow process because she doesn’t want to. When it’s suggested that she can use negative campaigning to win the election against Rafina, she’s thrilled, as the idea had never occurred to her! Of course, this is then balanced out by her realization that this sort of thing was also done against her in his first life, and she absolutely hated it. As a result, she refuses. She also has an excellent memory for names… we see her groping to recall someone’s name a few times in this book, but unlike other heroines of this type, she always gets it right. Her instincts usually steer her correct.

As for the rest of the cast, I was rather surprised at how little an effect Bel had on the plot. As Mia’s granddaughter, you’d expect her to be taking over having to replace the timeline, but she is there mostly as she ran away rather than to fix things, and she’s also four years younger than Mia. As a result, she’s there to be cute, occasionally tell Mia what life was like in the future, and be cute. (Yes, I said cute twice.) The other major character here is Rafina, and the reader gradually realizes, before Mia, why Mia’s winning the election is so important – Rafina is stretched too thin and has no one she can trust as a friend. In the future, this leads to tragedy and hardens her heart. Here (again via misunderstanding Mia… stay on brand, Tearmoon) she realizes what Mia is trying to do and acquiesces. There’s also a sneering villain sort of character (no, the book really describes him as this) who gets taken down by Mia, almost accidentally, immediately. Both he and Rafina benefit from having “please forgive me for my own mistakes” be thought of as “please forgive OTHERS for their own bad choices”.

Another thing I really enjoy about this series its its forays into the ‘Bad End’ pasts (or rather futures) of the characters. Anne visiting Mia in prison is a short story that is truly sweet and tearjerking. And Dion gets most of the last fifth of the book – first in the second bad future, showing him fighting to the death so Bel can escape to allies, and then in the present, as he delivers a missive to Mia and also has her show him around the city. It’s a good reminder that, while Mia is usually pretty good at covering up her airheadedness, not everyone is 100% under her spell – Dion does misinterpret her actions, but he also thinks that her face is that of someone “not thinking anything at all”. This also leads to the other tearjerking moment in the book, when Bel hugs Dion and thanks him for saving her, something which he is rather nonplussed by (as he hasn’t done it yet). Tearmoon Empire can be hilarious, but I also love the sweet heartfelt bits.

This is not quite as top-tier as the second book in the series, but it’s definitely a solid read, with well written and translated prose. The fourth book suggests Mia’s school she set up in Book 2 is not going as well as hoped. The good news is that we only have to wait three months rather than 5 for the next volume. Highly recommended.

By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Teng.

A majority of the fun in Tearmoon Empire 1 was the dissonance between Mia’s actions, Mia’s reasons for those actions, and the narrator caustically calling her out for the reasons for those actions. That’s still very much present in the second volume – in fact, if anything the narrator’s malice is even more prominent. But something strange happened, because suddenly I ended up being less interested in Mia’s headspace and the silly misconceptions of the people around her and more interested in the world that’s been created here and what’s going on with it. And with good reason, too: here we find that Mia may have jumped back in time to try to make it so she isn’t executed, but that doesn’t mean that the forces behind the scenes are not still gunning for her, or that they don’t still need revolution to happen. Mia, after all, was not the Big Bad in the old world, just a selfish Royal. So can she not only save herself, but the future of multiple countries?

Mia has a lot to do here. It may be summer vacation, but she has to stop arrogant counts from destroying the forest of the tribe that ends up fighting against her in the future; deal with the man who personally executed her; and worst of all, her not-quite-boyfriend Abel’s country is undergoing a very familiar revolution. Fortunately, she still has the magic ability to have her every word and deed misunderstood in the best possible way, and it’s still just as funny. That said, as with the first book, sometimes the misunderstandings have a serious core, as we see her avert a genocide and, yes, stop a revolution, but also force the future rulers of these kingdoms to change the way that they think, and not be so quick to turn to execution and unforgivable actions. That said, don’t worry, the narrator is here to remind us that Mia is shallow and only thinks of herself.

(My pet theory is that these are books commissioned by a future Mia to counteract the slavish hagiographies that are being written about her.)

The narrator, as ever, is sometimes correct but also sometimes full of it, and even they have to occasionally stop and say “OK, Mia was being genuinely good here”. (For a great analysis of the narrator in this book, see this Beneath the Tangles article.) Actually, my favorite scene in the entire book shows us the bad future that Mia originally came from, where a desperate Ludwig is trying in vain to stop her execution, and he points out that Mia, once actually taken in hand and shown she’s being vain or arrogant, is taking pains to actually learn from her mistakes. (It also contrasts with King Sion, who in this bad future did not have Mia’s words to misunderstand and take as well-meant advice.) That said, as I indicated, the plot is the best part herre, with a lot of tension, some good action scenes, and a terrific denouement where Mia takes out the villain as only Mia can.

As with My Next Life As a Villainess, this book feels complete at two volumes, with the main future having definitely been changed and everyone being quite happy. Also as with My Next Life As a Villainess, there’s more books to come, and next volume may see Mia having to face an even more startling future. Till then, this remains an absolutely terrific series. The author recommends in the afterword it be used for book reports. Sounds good to me.

By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Teng.

It’s been a while since I’ve been so entertained by a light novel debut. The premise of the story already had me half-won over, to be honest. Mia Luna Tearmoon is this world’s Marie Antoinette, a spoiled young princess who only cares about herself and thus, when the revolution comes (a revolution she unwittingly instigated), she is sent to the guillotine. But then… she wakes up ten years earlier, right as rain! Now she has a firm goal: change history! So far so normal, right? It’s a familiar plot to fanfic writers, so familiar it has a name – “Peggy Sue”, after the 1986 movie Peggy Sue Got Married. However, Mia hasn’t really changed all that much. She’s still a selfish princess who thinks only for herself… mostly. The intense desire to not get her head cut off, combined with the miserable three years in prison she spent before that, have led to several alterations in how she interacts with people. In fact… she slowly becomes terrific. Despite what she or the narrator might think.

In addition to the Peggy Sue aspect, there are other ‘genres’ of books I was reminded of. Mia is an “Otome Game Villainess” in all but name, and a lot of the interactions she has with others will make the reader think of Bakarina. I was also reminded of the old J-Novel series Me, a Genius?, in that some of the humor of the book comes from Mia misinterpreting everyone’s actions, and absolutely everyone misinterpreting hers. Her maid, Anne, becomes absolutely loyal and devoted. Her advisor, Ludwig, is convinced she’s brilliant (because she remembers all the issues that made the Empire fall in her past go-round and parrots it back to him). The exception to this is the narrator, who is very much a Lemony Snicket-style narrator, constantly reminding the reader that Mia’s motivations are focused only on herself, and that frequently she does not MEAN to do the immense good she does.

That said, one of the few drawbacks in this book is that sometimes the narration overdoes it a bit, because over the course of the book, we *do* see Mia doing a lot of good, even if her intent may be different. Though her, people’s lives get better, things are happier. What’s more, Mia is gradually getting less selfish. Part of this may be simple premonition – when she tries to ignore some noble girls bullying Tiona, who is the girl who eventually leads the revolution against Mia, she gets a chill down her spine. Is it realizing that ignoring it would be a disaster for her future? Or is it a growing conscience? I suspect the latter. She chooses to go to the rescue, and it’s great. Mia has a sharp tongue, something that does not change in either timeline, but using it for good rather than evil is a definite plus. She also flirts with a young prince, at first in order to gain his country’s help should the revolution still occur, but gradually finds him genuinely attractive and charming, and so reacts like a normal teenage girl. It’s sweet. (There’s also an amazing scene where a bitter young noble swaps out some food at a party for stale crackers she brought as a prank, and when Mia eats them she not only is nostalgically reminded of the food she was given in prison, but is clever enough to realize that the preservatives used in these THREE-YEAR-OLD crackers can help her kingdom’s food issues.)

I tend to ‘quote tweet’ parts of a book as I read them. I didn’t do that with Tearmoon Empire, but that’s simply as the quotable bits were entire paragraphs and scenes that would have been too long to tweet. This book is funny from start to finish, from the snarky narration to the hilarious misinterpretations and even to normal “just write it funny” scenes like the young noble girls trying (badly) to make a lunch for Mia’s beau, which was AMAZING. There’s also a diary extract at the end that reminds you that no one misinterprets Mia’s own actions quite like Mia herself. It’s the sort of book you want to go back and re-read the moment you finish it. (You may have to – the 2nd volume hasn’t started up on J-Novel Club’s schedule yet, though I understand it’s coming soon.) If you avoided this book because of its shoujo-style cover, you need to give it a read. I loved it.